Cops hunt rapist

South Side alert issued after 1 woman killed, 9 others attacked

October 27, 2005|By Chicago Tribune

Police believe a serial rapist who breaks into homes on the South Side at night is responsible for one murder and five sexual assaults.

A total of 10 attacks in recent months, including one that resulted in the death of 25-year-old Crystal Polk, led police to identify a pattern linked to one suspect, officials said. But they said that the violent incidents go back to August.

FOR THE RECORD - Additional material published Oct. 28, 2005:CORRECTIONA RedEye story Thursday about police seeking a murderer and suspected serial rapist on the South Side misidentified the police area handling the investigation. Calumet Area detectives are investigating.

The attacks have occurred in an area between 74th and 81st Streets and between Drexel and Jeffrey Boulevards, police said.

Victims range in age from 30 to 50, said Detective Jeffrey Roberts, who investigates sex crimes in the Wentworth Area. The only obvious trait the victims have had in common has been that they live or sleep alone.

All of the assaults have taken place between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., Roberts said. In some cases, the victims awoke to find the man--clad in a black mask--already on top of them in bed. Others awoke when he entered the bedroom, Roberts said.

One woman was abducted from her porch and dragged to a rear staircase, he said.

In five of the attacks, the women were raped, he said. In the other cases, the women were able to fight the man off.

The women describe a black man, age 30 to 40, about 5-foot-9, 200 pounds and "solidly built," Roberts said.

"Most of the attacks happened between Oct. 1 and 19," he said. "There were a couple in September, and one in August."

Roberts said police believe one person is responsible for the attacks because of their location, the time frame and the sexual violence. Detectives have started "trying to reinterview the victims looking for commonalities" in their backgrounds and experiences with the hopes that it will narrow the search, Roberts said.

The murdered woman was found strangled in a vacant lot in the 7400 block of South Drexel on Oct. 5. She appeared to have been sexually assaulted, police said

Polk lived about four blocks from the vacant lot where her body was found. Her mother, Gloria Polk, said she last saw her daughter the night before and did not learn she was dead until the following weekend, after she filed a missing-person report.

The "carefree and high-spirited" young woman had 9- and 7-year-old daughters, her mother said.

"Everybody is outraged. Crystal knew so many people, mostly on this block," Polk said. "This is so traumatic for me."

The news of serial attacks has alarmed the neighborhoods, where the victims are well-known to neighbors. Some of the victims said police were slow to respond to the crisis.

One woman who was attacked Oct. 15 in the 7800 block of Drexel said she heard a noise in her kitchen as she was getting into bed.

When she confronted the man, he attacked her and threatened to kill her. She fought back in what she said was a "struggle for my life," but then passed out during the assault. She awoke and pretended to be unconscious as he walked around the apartment taking money and stepping on her as she lay on the floor.

The victim and her downstairs neighbor both attended a community policing meeting on the attacks Wednesday night and were critical of police response to the attack.

The neighbor said she called 911 after hearing the man shout an obscenity and tell the victim, "You're going to die." But she said the dispatcher balked at sending help, suggesting that the victim's moans were just illness.

Elizabeth Barlow, who lives in the 7800 block of Drexel, where three of the attacks took place, said she now sleeps with kitchen knives and a hammer by her bed and keeps her front- and back-yard lights on all night.

Barlow, 60, said she's lived in the area for a decade and has seen it become more crime-ridden in recent years.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the jokers in the neighborhood," she said.

Roberts said the police are trying to warn the neighborhood and to raise awareness with the hope that someone in the community may have seen something useful to the investigation. People with information should call 312-747-8271.